Film holder



Oct. 14, 1952 s, wo 2,613,580

FILM HOLDER Filed Nov. 1'7, 1949 INVENTOR. HA R RY -5. WOLF z 5 4 l:QTTO/Z/VEY Patented Oct. 14, 1952 UNITED STATES .PATENT OFFICE FILMHOLDER Harry S. Wolf, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Application November 17, 1949, Serial No. 127,882

1 Claim.

This invention relates to film holders.

More particularly, my invention is concerned with an improvedconstruction for film holders of the type adapted to supportphotographic film, and particularly large photographic negatives such asX-ray films, during the handling thereof for developing and drying.

It is an object of my invention to provide a film holder of thecharacter described which is of rugged construction, constitutesrelatively few and simple parts and is comparatively inexpensive tomanufacture.

Film holders of the character described come in various sizes, eachdesigned to handle a different conventional film size. Heretofore, ithas been customary for different sizes of film holders either toincorporate frames of different overall sizes or to use framesconstituting a plurality of members whose overall sizes are the same butwhich are differently permanently secured together to accommodate thedifferently sized films. Both these constructions are disadvantageous inthat with the former many different overall sizes of frames must be madeand with the latter the frame is not sturdy and durable.

It is an object of my invention to provide film holders including aone-piece frame of improved construction which can be modified readilyduring its manufacture to handle different sizes of films with the sameoverall size of film holder.

It is another object of my invention to provide a film holder of thecharacter described, having an improved form of clip, which is lesslikely to be deformed accidentally.

Other objects of my invention will in part be obvious and in part willbe pointed out hereinafter.

My invention accordingly consists in the features of construction,combinations of elements and arrangements of parts which will beexemplified in the device hereinafter described and of which the scopeof application will be indicated in the appended claim.

In the accompanying drawings in which is shown one of the variouspossible embodiments of my invention,

Fig. l is an elevational view of a film holder embodying my invention,the same being shown as it appears when supporting a film;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged vertical fragmentary sectional view takensubstantially along the line 22 of Fig. 1, being illustrative of theconstruction of the frame and clips;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken substantially along the line3--3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional View taken substantially along the line44 of Fig. l and showing the clip in film-engaging position;

Fig. 4a, is a View similar to Fig. l, but with the clip open to admitfilm;

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken substantially along the line 5-5 ofFig. 1 and showing the member employed to connect the frame of the filmholder to a wire which supports the clips;

Fig. 6 is a front view of one of the clips; and

Fig. 7 is a sectional view taken substantially along the line l'! ofFig. 2.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, I there have shown aphotographic film holder ll! constructed in accordance with myinvention. Said film holder includes a frame support bar l2 which may beof channel-shaped crosssection (see Fig. 2) and is adapted to besupported on a drying raclr or developing tank.

The film holder also includes a hollow frame it of generally rectangularshape. Said frame is made from a stiff elongated member, for example asingle length of metal wire, and constitutes a horizontal bottom bar !6having a pair of erect side bars 18, 253 at its ends. At the tops of theside bars are horizontal inturned branches 22, 24 which terminate indownwardly extending vertical arms 26, 23 whose lower ends carryinwardly extending horizontal reaches 30, 32. Said reaches are inhorizontal. alignment and have their tips juxtaposed.

The vertical arms 26, 2% and horizontal reaches 39, 32 jointly form aU-shaped member which, in effect, depends from the bar l2 and which isarranged to support an upper pair of clips 34, 36. By varying the lengthof the arms 28, 28, the vertical dimension of the U-shaped supporteasily can be changed during manufacture of the frame is, wherebyone-piece frames of the same overall size can accommodate differentlysized photographic films. Such variation in size of the U-shaped supportneed not be and preferably is not employed to enable the same overallsize of frame to handle all film sizes, as it would cause the support tobecome overly long, and, therefore, for comparatively small film sizesthe frames are made with smaller overall dimensions. However, even thereby varying the length of the U-shaped support, a frame of fixed externaldimensions may accommodate films of different sizes.

The branches 22, 24 are located within the channel-shaped bar it and aresecured thereto in any suitable fashion, for example by welding.

The upper pair of clips 34, 36 are carried by a slender, elongatedresilient element such as a wire 38, being located adjacent the oppositeends thereof and conventionally permanently secured thereto, forinstance by welding. The wire 38 is attached to and supported by thebase of the U-shaped support constituting the aligned reaches 30, 32.For this purpose, I provide a connector 40 comprising a piece of sheetmetal shaped to include a sleeve 42 that encircles the reaches 30, 32adjacent their tips and another sleeve 44 that encircles the centralportion of the wire. The sleeves are permanently secured to the supportand wire in a standard manner, for example by welding.

A lower pair of clips 46, 48 is supported from the bottom bar I6, themounting therefor optionally being rigid rather than resilient as in thecase of the upper clips. The connection between the lower clips and thebottom bar is permanent, welding, for example, being employed.

All of the clips 34, 35, 4E, 49 are of identical construction so thatthe same parts of each are denoted by the same reference numerals. Eachclip is made from a single piece of resilient sheet metal stock andincludes a pair of spaced parallel arms 50, 52 (see Fig. '7) joined by areturn bend 54. One of the arms, e. g., the arm 52, is formed with aZ-shaped tab (see Fig. 3) the adjacent leg of which is disposed at anangle to the plane of said arm. The outer angle of the Z receives thewire 38 or the bottom bar l8 and the inner angle of the Z is employed tolocate and orient the clip in a desired position relative to its support(see Fig. 2).

One of the arms, e. g. the arm 52, has an inwardly offset finger 58extending from the vertical edge thereof opposite the return bend 54(see Fig. 7). The free end of this finger mounts a vertically extendingear G (the ears of the upper pair of clips extend downwardly and theears of the lower pair of clips extend upwardly (see Fig. 2). Said earsupports a horizontal spike 62 whose pointed end is directed away fromthe arm 50.

The arm 50 has an inwardly offset finger 64 similar to the finger B.Said finger 64 supports a horizontal bridge plate 68 (the bridge plateof the upper clips is above the fingers 58, 54 and of the lower clips isbelow these fingers). Vertically extending from the bridge plate is anear l0 similar in shape to the ear B0 and in registry 'here with, butnot provided with a spike. The ear is fashioned with a through opening12 aligned with the spike and designed to pass the same. The ears 69, 10are relatively positioned reversely of the arms 50, 52; that is to say,if the arm 52 be considered to be on the right, as shown in the upperclip on Fig. 2, and the arm 50 be considered to be on the left, then theear 60 carried by the arm 52 is on the left-hand side of the ear 10carried by the arm 50.

The bend 54 is so shaped that in the finished clip the arms 50, 52 arelightly biased apart whereby to urge the ears 60, 10 into contact withone another. Abutment of these ears determines 4 the closed position ofthe clip 22. To open the clip the arms 50, 52 are pressed togethermanually, thereby forcing apart the ears 60, 10. Movement of the ears insuch direction is limited by abutment of the ear 60 against the finger64.

It will be noted that the construction of the clip is such that both itsopen and closed positions are determined by abutment of parallel flatsurfaces so that there is little likelihood of the clip being deformedaccidentally.

It thus will be seen that I have provided a device which achieves allthe objects of my invention and is well adapted to meet the conditionsof practical use.

As various possible embodiments might be made of the above invention,and as various changes might be made in the embodiment above set forth,it is to be understood that all matter herein described, or shown in theaccompanying drawings, is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in alimiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent:

A film holder comprising a frame support bar, a one-piece stiff hollowframe of rectangular shape including a stiff bottom bar, stiff side barsat the ends of the bottom bar, branches extending inwardly from the sidebars and a U-shaped clip support, the upper ends of the arms of saidclip support being in one piece with the inner ends of the branches,said support extending downwardly toward the bottom bar of the frame,means to connect said branches to said support bar, an elongatedresilient element, means to connect said element to the base of theU-shaped clip support, said last-named means comprising a pair ofintegrally connected sleeves one of which encircles said. element andthe other of which encircles the base of the clipv support, an upperpair of clips connected to said element adjacent the ends thereof and alower pair of clips connected to the bottom bar and verticallyregistered with the upper clips.

HARRY S. WOLF.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,563,858 Ingve Dec. 1, 19251,687,581 Murphy Oct. 16, 1928 2,092,522 Post Sept. 7, 1937 2,352,601Burke July 4, 1944 2,370,434 Wolf Feb. 27, 1945 2,429,358 Kamiss Oct.21, 1947 2,445,320 Fischer et a1. July 20, 1948 FOREIGN PATENTS NumberCountry Date 207,952 Great Britain Dec. 13, 1923 598,462 Germany June 9,1934

